THE LAST CHAPTER! I'm kinda sad...

...kinda

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Onto the LAST CHAPTER of the fic...

"I... won?" Yoh asked rhetorically.

"Yoh!" came a call from behind him. He turned around to see Anna, standing.

"Anna?" He ran to her and hugged her for all he was worth.

And Anna was surprised, of course. Not being used to getting hugs, she didn't exactly know what to do, so she settled for just letting Yoh hold her in the midst of all onlookers.

Endings

"Are you okay?" Yoh asked, putting his hands on her shoulders and surveying her. "He didn't do anything to you, right?"

"No," Anna said. Technically this was not a lie. She didn't know what 'anything' was, and therefore to her knowledge, he didn't do 'anything'.

"Good," Yoh stated, cosoled. Silva walked up to them.

"Yoh Asakura," he said.

"Yes?" Yoh asked.

"You have won the tournament. Now you and your fellow shamans must appear before the Great Spirit so he may decide upon the new Shaman King," he said formally. "Oh," he said, leaning down as if to tell a secret, "And nice job,"

Yoh smiled his trademark smile. "Thanks, Silva,"

Silva straightened again. "Follow me," he said, once again retaining his formalities. He led Yoh out of the stadium. Anna watched him go.

She started walking in the opposite direction, toward Yoh's friends in the stands. Rio and Faust got up and followed her out. She was, after all, still Anna the Itako, the one undeniably in charge and one who could hurt them all. It was best to cooperate with her.

"Anna!" Tamora, Jun, and Pilica called, running down to meet her as she jumped the wall into the stands.

"We're glad you're okay, Miss Anna!" Tamora called, finally reaching her.

Anna was surprised, again. She had never thought anyone would miss her. What had she done for them? Nothing except torture them. Did that seem right? What had she done to make them miss her?

"Indeed," Jun agreed, "It was definately... different around here without you,"

"And Yoh was going out of his mind!" Pilica brought up, "I mean when he turned on that radio and we heard you cry! That was- Ouch!" Trey had nudged her in the back.

"You heard that!" Anna asked.

"Well!"

"Uh... yes?" Pilica said, uncertain.

"What else did you hear!" she demanded.

And so, they told her.

Yoh followed Silva out of the stadium. He was led through Dobe Village to a wide fiels with a huge tree. This tree stood over all of the village's buildings and even the colosseums. Behind the tree was a large pathway of silver light. The light path curved upward, leading to the birthplace of spirits, and home of the Great Spirit.

Yoh was struck speechless at the sight.

Although he had seen it before, there was something about it now, something definate, that made it all the more special.

"Yoh Asakura," Silva said, sounding as if he had practiced this a billion times. "The Great Spirit had asked me to take you to meet him. This is a journey that you must make alone. I shall wait here for your return," he winked at Yoh.

Yoh decided to play along and, going all formal, said, "Thank you kind sir, I shall hope to see you upon my return,"

Yoh turned toward the silver path and took the first step onto it.

"You heard that too!" Anna questioned. She felt the cover of her emotions had been blown sky-high seeing as they had all heard her break down.

"Yes," Len said. "Yes, now we've heard everything, so... what's next?"

Tamora piped up, "Well, I suppose we'll have to wait for Yoh to come back from wherever he's going-"

"Which is to see the Great Spirit," Anna said.

They gasped.

"Oh come on! It's not like you didn't know he was going to be Shaman King after that battle!"

She had them there.

"You won't have to wait long," Yoh said, coming up behind the group.

"Yoh!" They all said.

"Hey! So you're the Shaman King, dude! How does it feel?" Asked Trey, pretending to be a newscaster.

"I don't feel any different, although I have a better sense of self-achievement," he said into Trey's fist, which they were pretending was the microphone.

"Mr. Asakura!" Pilica piped up, playing along. She raised a hand with a microphone "What are your plans now that you're Shaman King,"

"Well I'm certainly not going to destroy all humans, like my otouto planned. But honestly, that's a pretty broad topic. First I plan to go home and get some long overdue sleep,"

They all sweatdropped.

Choco then spoke, "Mr. Shaman King! How much can we pay you to do the things we would have wanted if we were Shaman King?"

Everybody sweatdropped again, with the exception of Choco.

"I'm... not gonna answer that,"

Nobody noticed Anna had walked away.

"Hey, Anna," Yoh said later, after finding Anna on a hill on the outskirts of Dobe Village.

"Hello, Yoh," Anna said, sounding like her usual self.

"Don't give me that, Anna," Yoh said. "What happened to you?"

"I... It was Hao,"

"What was Hao?"

"He... made me like that, the total emotional wreck. He... did things to me, Yoh. Things I let him do because..."

"Because...?"

"Because I thought I stood a better chance of survival. He was more powerful. And if you can't beat them-"

"Join them," Yoh said.

"Yes, but I didn't want to join him. I wanted things back to the way they were. But I still let him do those things to me. Maybe I thought that I could fool him and make a break for it at some point,"

"But the fact is, you let him do unspeakable things to you. And you, being human, almost enjoyed them,"

"... I didn't want to- he forced me- I wanted out- he wanted me..."

"But you let him have you? Willingly?"

"No! No, Yoh! Never! I didn't give myself to him. That offer I am reserving for one person alone... But he almost took me by force..."

Yoh sat down beside her. "Anna," he said softly, "I don't blame you. For anything! Actually, I should blame myself. That link, Anna, it made you weak. You couldn't resist him when he took you. It was my fault,"

"I was the one who made the link, Yoh. I wanted to help you. I needed to help you-"

"Why, Anna! Why did you need to help me? You didn't have to. The last thing I'd want is for you to get hurt because of me. Why didn't you tell me that the link would share pain too? I never would have done it if you'd told me. I've been driving myself crazy over you these past few days! I was so helpless! I couldn't save you! I-"

"You didn't have to do that, Yoh. I could have taken care of myself and you know it,"

"Then why did you let him..." he trailed off.

Anna didn't answer.

"You were always there, Yoh. Whenever I needed you, you were there. After my parents died and I stopped feeling emotion, I found you and your family. Even when I was horrible to you during training, you didn't complain, not much anyway. You obeyed me willingly, but what had I done to deserve your obedience? Nothing. I needed to know I was helping you for once, instead of you always helping me. Do you now how many times I've cried over the past few days, Yoh? I don't even think I could count! And that was all because of you. You took my heart and let me feel again, Yoh. I'm forever indebted to you,"

"...Anna, you've helped me more than you know. You trained me so I wouldn't fail. And look at me now! The Shaman King! All because of your training. You also gave me confidence. Do you know how I saved you during that last match? Ghost Cutter. The technique you made me learn because it might help me. And during the last part of the fight, after my sword broke, you were the one that made me get out of the way. I won because of you, Anna. You don't owe me anything,"

There was a pause.

"So what do we do now?" Anna asked.

"Whaddya mean?"

"Well, the tournament's over. I... I can leave if you want me to. I don't need to train you any more,"

"I don't think so," Yoh said. "About the leaving, that is. The training- I'm set with,"

Anna giggled.

Yoh heard the beautiful sound and laughed along.

"You should laugh more often out in the open, Anna,"

"Out in the open?" she asked.

"Yes, Anna... I know what you are like when you're alone. And it's totally different than what you're like with your friends. Be more like your real self with them,"

"I... don't know..."

"Sure! It's easy! I'll even help!"

"Still... I've been this way for so long..."

"You'll get back in no time, Anna! Especially if you let me help you!"

"... Alright,"

"What?"

"Alright,"

"Really!"

"Yes,"

"YAY!" he said, then kissed her on the cheek.

Both sat momentarily stunned at Yoh's sudden action. Yoh was still leaning over to Anna's sitting form, and Anna was staring straight ahead.

Anna turned her head to look at Yoh. This inadvertantly brought their faces closer together and made their noses touch.

Bluches spread across both of their cheeks.

"Uh...," Anna said. Yoh quickly backed off.

They both looked away while their cheeks became pale again.

"Yoh... why did you do that?"

"I... don't know,"

"Oh...

...Do it again,"

Yoh smiled, then kissed her on the cheek again. She smiled back at him, a genuine, happy smile.

And he couldn't resist.

He kissed her full on.

Needless to say, Anna wasn't expecting this. And so, she was quite surprised to find a pair of lips on hers again. The last person to do that was Hao. But... this was Yoh.

And there was something different there.

She responded to it-- something she never truly did to Hao.

Yoh stopped. "I- I'm sorry Anna!"

"That's okay, Yoh," she replied. "In fact... I think I liked it,"

"...Really?"

"Really,"

And Yoh kissed her again.

END!

I ENDED IT! WAAAAAAAAAAAA!

thank you to all my loyal reviewers. I hope to write more and that you'll read more when I write them. Unfortunately, I don't have any ideas right now for another story (unlike my CC fics) otherwise... I'd include a sneak peek, like i did in Another Big Shrink

If any of you have any ideas for stories that you may want me to write, just email me!

I hope to write more soon! Maybe even a sequel. Should I?

animebookworm